Do The Thing

... to help stop Trump

Do The Thing is a mailing list with a daily thing you can do to improve things in our country, with an emphasis on limiting the power of a corrupt minority president billionaire1.

Consider it one small attempt to resist the betrayal and corruption of a Trump presidency.

We value:

Action over thought

This list is much more about small things you can do, than about long term strategy, education, or theorizing. Those are all valuable too, but not what we're good at.

Continuous improvement

The emails you'll get may not be beautiful, may not be ideal, and may in some cases be mistakes. We'd much rather do 9 good things and 1 mistake, than 1 good thing and 0 mistakes.

Calling people in

Your uncle's a lifelong republican and thinks we should dump Obamacare and public schools, but he's maybe hesitant about Trump, and willing to fight the worst of the corruption and authoritarianism? He's one of us. Your neighbor doesn't maybe see that saying "All Lives Matter" totally misses the point, but she'll help donate to Planned Parenthood? Bring her in. Your friend thinks Trump's call to ban all Muslims is insane, but still wears a Cleveland Indians Chief Wahoo hat? She's in too. We don't endorse all their current beliefs, but we appreciate whatever fight they're willing to put in, and we welcome them and help them along becoming more fair, open-minded, and loving individuals. And we do not fall to the temptation to mock each other for our mistakes to make ourselves feel superior.

FAQ

Who's "we"?

In the broad sense, all of us who support justice, diversity, tolerance, fairness, blah blah everything that makes America great. (and not "Great Again." Despite its incoming leadership, the United States is better than it's ever been.) In the specific sense, it's the following people:

Cole (cole@dothething.info): posts on Sunday usually about international relations

Sheila (sheila@dothething.info): posts on Monday usually about corruption, transparency, and openness

Beka (beka@dothething.info) and Emily (emily@dothething.info): post on Tuesday usually about supporting underrepresented and oppressed groups

Dan (dan@dothething.info): posts on Wednesday (topics TBD)

Michelle (michelle@dothething.info), AKA Bova: posts on Thursday usually about climate change and the environment

Brad (brad@dothething.info): posts on Saturday usually about the press

Do The Thing Writers Emeritus: Brian, Erin, Stacey

Why not something more positive?

This is a time for protest. A corrupt wannabe-tyrant has won the most powerful office in the world with a minority of our votes. We want to work together and compromise as much as possible; this is a core feature of normal democracy. But Trump is not normal2, and to pretend otherwise would mean allowing him and his party to move the goalposts.

What's in a Do The Thing email?

There will be a direct Thing to do. These things will be:

As actionable * useful as possible. So, we'll try not to feature "oh no this is bad" (because it's not actionable) or "slacktivism" like "Sign this petition" (because it's not useful). So far, this has been mostly contacting congresspeople, phone banking, donating money, and writing to people.

Honest. This should go without saying, but in the age of "fake news," who knows.

Ideally bipartisan. You don't need to be a lefty pinko commie to agree that corruption is bad, authoritarianism is un-American, and truth is real. We may cross this line, though, because a lot of us feel very strongly about a lot of issues that have somehow become partisan. If you don't like the more left-leaning posts (or right-leaning, maybe!), that's fine; we still love you, come back tomorrow.

There will be a link to confirm that you Did The Thing. This is for feel-good points, so we can see "hey, 37 people Did The Thing yesterday!"

There may be an indirect thing to do. This often will not accomplish anything by itself, but may help you do future things. Probably we'll always have one direct thing.

There might be a "bonus" thing to do. This is where the "slacktivism" goes - I mean, clicking a petition won't hurt anything, and you might as well, so long as it doesn't crowd out real activism.

If you have another question, please feel free to contact me at dan@dothething.info.

1. This used to say "... billionaire with tiny hands." Trump's hands are funny, to be clear! Or, more accurately, the fact that he gets so cheesed off about his hands being tiny is funny. But we're serious business here, so I removed this little dig to avoid giving people the wrong impression when they come here the first time.
2. Please excuse Mr. Foust's anger at the voters in the first couple paragraphs, as it does not reflect this mailing list's attitude towards Trump voters. However, his attitude towards Trump himself is right on.